Episode 99

In this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, the interviewer is being interviewed! Jay sits on the other side of the microphones to give testimony of how the Lord Jesus Christ removed the barriers she had to salvation. Her religious upbringing mixed with her own apathy and carelessness created those barriers, but they were no match for the Savior. Her testimony also highlights God’s patient faithfulness in continuing to remove barriers after salvation: the many barriers to sanctification and growth. Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ who seeks and saves those that are lost and leads them along!

Our savior is at once the conquering king. He will everything will be subdued and yet a bruised reed he will not break the mercy that he shows the poor or incapable feeble sinner a smoking flax shall he not quench the mercy that he shows the weakest of us is such a comfort to me because I’m that Bruce Reed. I’m that smoking flax.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG, and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 99 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and this is the 29th in the series of how were your barriers removed? And in this episode, we’ll find out how Jay’s barriers removed when she came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jay before we get into the testimony, we actually have a sponsor for this episode. This episode of the Removing Barriers podcast is sponsored by Swap. If you are using paper maps for your outreach ministry, there is an easier way to create maps and follow up with contacts, introducing the soul-winning app, or SWAPP for short. SWAPP allows your church to effectively set up an outreach area, digitally map that area, and allow app users to easily show progress on that map. You can print maps, record prayer requests, and follow up with contacts. SWAPP is offering a 30 day free trial and money back guarantee. Go to theSoulwinningapp.com or theswapp.io to sign up today, SWAPP, the only outreach software designed specifically for soul-winning and soul-winners. And you too can help keep the mics on by going to removingbarriers.net/donate.

All right, Jay, let’s get into it. Finally, we’re doing your testimony. So tell me, Jay, what state or country were you born in first? Can I say it’s totally weird to be on the other side.

Okay. I was born in Orlando, Florida. Orlando, Florida. The land of Disney. Disney World.

Yes. All right, tell us about your family. What type of family were you born into? Well, I grew up in a Christian religious household. My mother and my father immigrated to the US. From the Caribbean in the 1980s. I have four siblings, three older sisters and a younger brother. But my brother and I were the first ones to be born in the States. So when my father came, when my parents came, they left three children in their country and went to get them afterwards. So, yeah, my brother and I were born in the States, and all my sisters came to the country later as immigration would allow, whatever time requirements, whatever financial requirements, whenever those were filled, they would come in. I don’t know the process. I’ve never had to go through it. But my older sister came in first. She had to have come in before I could remember because I don’t remember a time when she wasn’t there. And my other sisters arrived when I was in elementary school, late elementary school, so 4th, 5th grade. I remember when they arrived, I actually didn’t even know they existed until then, to be frank. And so the transition was a bit rough for a few months, maybe even a year. But yeah, I can’t remember a time in our family where we didn’t go to church. I wouldn’t have understood this growing up, but the church that we grew up going to was in hindsight, it was conservative and dressed conservative and standards. What little theology we did learn, it was within orthodoxy, I’d say. I can’t remember us learning anything particularly crazy like cultish or Holy Spirit is not a person type of nonsense. Everything that we learned was within the realm of orthodoxy, I think. With quirks, of course, but definitely within orthodoxy, I think. I’m sure if I had the opportunity, with the knowledge that I have now, if I had the opportunity to drill down and try to figure out exactly what the people believe at the time, I’m sure I’d find some questionable stuff. But coming up, I would say that it was for what little theology that we learned, it was solid, I suppose.

How about you dive a little bit more in your upbringing before salvation? Okay. You talk a little bit about your church. What about your home life itself? Are your parents saved? Were they saved growing up? When I was growing up, I thought they were. You couldn’t tell me anything. I mean, my dad was a spiritual superhero, and my mom, naturally, she was saved, of course. Now if you ask me, I have questions, but growing up, I believe that they were my home life wasn’t really identifiably Christian in retrospect. I mean, in fact, it wasn’t really until my teen years that we had regular family worship time, and that lasted a few years and then fizzled out when my older siblings began graduating or working or doing their internships or their apprenticeships. So we’d wake up, we’d go to school till three or four in the afternoon, and we’d come home and we’d watch TV until pray time, and we’d go to sleep and do it all over again. That was the gist of our life. And I have to take a moment to really acknowledge the community that we grew up with and the community we grew up within because our church consisted of our church, one of our neighbors and the small business owners that surrounded my parents shop, it was because of them that we had a landing spot to live in, like a little bit of a cushion to live within. Because when my parents came to the country, of course they’re coming to a foreign land to live. We weren’t American enough for the Americans, and we weren’t black enough for the African Americans, and so we didn’t fit anywhere. Families in our situation responded in different ways. You had the ones that totally embrace trying to become fully American, like leaving their heritage behind, trying to fully embrace being American, which often times it’s quite work because they were always on the outskirts and you had the ones who fully embraced black American culture, and that was often to their detriment. They really picked up a lot of the things that sully black culture in this country. And then there were families like ours where we just kind of kept our heads down. We went to church, we went to school, stayed out of trouble, didn’t try to waste time being accepted by the people around us, just trying to just live and contribute to the new country in whatever little meaningful way. And that really provided us with just a little bit of pushing, breathing space, living space, if you will, in a culture that was we just didn’t fit in anywhere. And so at home, home life was like I say, it wasn’t really identifiably Christian. We just kept our heads down, went to church, went to school, came back, watch TV, prayed, went to sleep. That’s really all it really boiled down to.

And we were active in church activities and youth group and singing group later on when we were older. Bible study, though, that was quite infrequent. And my father was a deacon for as long as I can remember, but I never knew what that really meant. And so my mom was always quite guarded regarding people in the church. Sometimes it was warranted because you could be hurt by people in church, and other times it was all in her head. I think all these things played a role in shaping my attitude or my understanding of spiritual things, whether I knew it or not. You know, my parents, as I mentioned before, they had a shop. They still have a mom and pop shop when I was in elementary school, and they still run it today. And I think that shop represents the American dream for them because how it came about to illiterate people. And when I say illiterate, I don’t mean that they’re stupid or that they can’t read. They can read in their own language. But you come to a country where you don’t know the language, you can’t understand it, you can’t speak it, you can’t write it. You’re really starting off at zero. You really are illiterate. If I dropped everything and went to go live in Portugal, I have a college degree, but I would still be illiterate because I don’t know Portuguese. That’s what I mean by illiterate. But anyway, illiterate immigrants, they come into a foreign country. They’re willing to this country, this great country that’s willing to provide them with a chance. And they work hard, they open a business, they raise some solid kids, if I may say so myself, and they contribute in some small way to their new society. So I guess I can understand why they don’t want to let the shop go, even though it’s a shell of itself and they are much older and shells of themselves. But I never got a sense of entitlement or victimhood in any way from them. If anything, they were the type to kick down doors and take names and make things happen and work hard. I never heard them blame the government or the country or their circumstances for anything. In fact, I remember how they always complained about their native country’s government and how their government had failed the country. That country is a failed state by today’s standards, by all metrics, is a failed state. And so they complain about their old country. And even if America treated them poorly in some ways, they knew that whatever they got here in the states was ten times better than what they had in their home country. So they weren’t the type to complain or to lack content. They were very much content and they just worked hard. And so I can’t remember a time where we lived on any type of assistance. If they did, they didn’t stay on it very long because the house that we grew up in is the house that they’re still living in. And they paid it off early.

I remember when the house was paid off, it was paid off early. And my dad gathered us all together and we went into the room and we worshipped and praised and thanked the Lord. And then we all ate King Vitamin cereal and watched The Lion King because that’s just how you celebrate. I just share all of that to show what kind of family that I came from. So we were just hard working, immigrant family, but spiritually there wasn’t anything identifiably Christian. So Mommy and Daddy would run the shop during the day and then in the afternoon until late in the evening, daddy would go to his second job at Disney and then Mommy would take us home and prepare for the next day. And that’s how we would do that every single day. We spent a lot of time watching TV, or we spent a lot of time quite idle. And of course, that shapes a lot of what we understood. It shaped a lot about what we understood about God, about what we understood about people life in this country, which is really not a good thing, because TV is obviously not there’s a lot in there that’s not true. I’d say that’s true for many other families that grew up the way that we did. And that’s actually a problem because legitimate illiteracy is a problem. In Haiti, if you’re not part of the elite class, you don’t get educated. That’s just how it is. And so you have people who can barely read and write in their own language, and they come to a new country and they’re trying the best that they can. They open the Bible and they understand a few words here and there, and they’re just kind of copying other preachers that they’ve heard. And so there are a lot of holes, there a lot of lack of understanding there and that’s shown it’s reflected in the people’s understanding of theology of God and all that sort of thing. And in Sunday mornings, interestingly enough, the services were conducted all in French. So if you were a person who didn’t get past the 8th grade, you’re really struggling Sunday mornings to understand anything that they’re saying because so the education isn’t there, the theology isn’t there, the teaching, the understanding isn’t quite there. But there’s an earnestness, there’s a zeal, there’s a desire, there isn’t much there. God is merciful, though, and I’m sure that we’re going to explain later on how so in my life, but absolutely very merciful, even in spite of all of that. I like to call it Swiss cheese, you’re getting it. But there are a lot of holes in there and there’s a lot of gaps in understanding. In spite of that, God was merciful and God was powerful to save, capable of saving and he did as he did me.

Yeah, and talking about upbringing, dad has always been very strict. He was very, very strict. It was really important to him that his children would become more and do more, be more than he ever possibly could considering the deck of cards he was dealt in life. And so he was absolutely no nonsense. I’m talking to learning my times tables was quite the traumatic experience. I mean, the belt, I could laugh at it now, it wasn’t so funny when I was little, but yeah, he was incredibly strict because he wanted more for us. Of course we didn’t understand it at the time and many times that desire became all encompassing to where he would lean toward brutality, but I think ultimately came from the place of wanting his children to succeed and to thrive.

Do you remember the first time you heard the gospel? No, actually, I couldn’t tell you the first time I heard the gospel because like I say, even though the theology that we got from church was piecemeal it was Swiss cheese, what little bit we did get was that I say it was within orthodoxy and they would say it over and over again. So I couldn’t tell you the first time I heard the gospel. I don’t remember a time when I did not understand that Jesus Christ came into the world and died for sinners and whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life again. I say God is so merciful and he’s so good. In spite of the holes and the gaps in our understanding, he still used it. So there was a lady in our church who along with her husband, took it upon themselves to minister to the kids in the church because there was nothing for the children. We just kind of sat there next to our parents and you know, we understood Creole, that’s great. But when they were speaking French on a Sunday morning, we were trying to piece stuff together. Some words made sense, some phrases made sense, but not really. So there wasn’t anything much for the children. No kids activities, no kids programs. And they took it upon themselves to start it. It’s called get their fonting. And I remember that time very fondly because God really used it in my life. And in those programs, we memorized scripture, we won prizes, played games. It was very similar to like an Awana type thing. And we learned how to listen to sermons because what she would recommend not recommend, what she would require of us, and I remember this in the fourth, 5th grade or so, she would require us in these notebooks that she bought us. These are all cheap dollar tree notebooks or whatever. She would require that we sit down and we take notes of the sermon. And then we would turn those notebooks in. And if we took excellent notes, we would get a mark or we’d get a little prize. And if the notes were lacking, she would make a note of where we went wrong or some of the things that we missed. And so in that process, we learned to listen to the sermon and take notes. Of course, I don’t think she expected much from us when they were preaching in French, but in Creole we were able to pick up a lot and pay attention. It was like forcing us to pay attention because we were reaching for that price, not realizing that the true price was being exposed and be sitting under the preaching of the word of God. However, Swiss cheese it was, whatever little bit of it was, it was effective. God used it.

So anyway, the scripture memory was done in French. So not much of the Bible sunken, maybe words here and there. Now, in retrospect, I can understand what I was memorizing, but at the time I did not understand what I was memorizing. Maybe words or phrases here and there, but because it wasn’t French, not much. And if I could just answer a caveat, the reason why they did things in French in the morning service and not in the evening service, it stems back to the days in which Haiti was a colony of France, a slave colony of France. And of course, when the conquering people are in the country, if you’re in the conquered, you want to be a part of the winning team. So you want to speak French, you want to look French, you want to behave French. And so you could differentiate yourself from the slave class if you spoke French or if you were educated or that sort of thing. So in many, many churches, in fact, in every church that I knew growing up, Sunday morning services were done in French because that was the Lord’s day. Sunday morning was the day where God’s people gathered and came together. And so you had to put forth your very best I’m talking women wear. It all kind of glitzy, beautiful hats, and everyone was at 100% Sunday morning, which also meant speaking in French, because that was the highest ideal in their mind. Of course, forget that 90% of the people in the congregation probably don’t know a lick of French, but because that was presented as the highest ideal going back to slave days, that’s why they did things in French. But anyway, long story made short, the scripture memory wasn’t French. I don’t understand much of what I was memorizing in French, but I did memorize it, got my little prize, and I was really happy about it. But in spite of that, the Swiss cheese and all of that, I keep calling it swish cheese. That’s really what it’s like. But in either case, I’m forever grateful to her and to her husband and all their helpers for what they did, because it was much more than what was available to children in the church at that time. There was nothing for us except to sit there and look nice in our Sunday clothes, but there was nothing spiritually there for us. And what little bit that we were able to draw from get down funding really helped us. There are moments in your life when you look back and you realize how much of a fundamental shift an event or a person was in your life. I think her doing that, I think Get Down sean was one of those things, because I began to at least become aware of the fact that the Bible and church weren’t just things that we did. It was something that we should be taking heed to. It was something that we were supposed to be engaging with. And that began, I think, from my perspective, that began God’s very long suffering and painstaking efforts to remove all of these barriers to save my wretched little soul.

From the time that I was in elementary school to about middle school, age 14 or so, god used to get a fantasy to really at least awaken me spiritually. I guess dark clouds were beginning to brew in the church and that home around middle school. But before things began to fall apart, there was an African preacher. I don’t know what country he came from, south Africa, maybe, I don’t know. Anyway, he was invited to preach at our church. He didn’t speak the language, so someone had to translate for him. In fact, the husband of the lady who started getting Fontaine, he translated for this preacher, and it was a revival service thing. And I remember hanging on to every word, and he absolutely would, almost every three point something seconds, he would say, the Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says. And that really stuck to me because he was preaching from the Scriptures. And I’m certain that he talked about the gospel and about what it means to walk with Christ. And I was hanging on to every word. And like I said, I told you, I can’t pinpoint a decisive moment on when I heard the gospel. But if I were to throw a dart in a dark room, I would say that sermon with that African preacher would be the time that I heard the Gospel clearly. I was hanging on to every word, just listening. What does the Bible say? He always said, the Bible says the Bible says, I remember as a child wondering, well, what does the Bible say? And I’m hanging onto every word, trying to hear exactly what the Bible says. And so, as I said, the Lord really used it, and I’m really grateful for that. I remember hanging on to every word. I’m hearing Him preach from the Bible, and he’s calling folks to repentance. He’s calling folks to commitment. You know how revival services are. The preaching of revival services are. And I’m hanging on to every word, and I’m responding to the affirmative very simply. My understanding is probably two inches deep, but I’m responding, say, okay, yes, Lord, I will do that. Okay, yes, Lord, I want to do that. I want to follow you. I want to serve you. I want to just responding in the affirmative to everything that he’s asserting the Bible says. And just I remember as a child, in whatever feeble way, submitting and saying, okay, yes, Lord, the Bible says I will obey. The Bible says I will obey. But it didn’t quite coalesce into what my understanding of the Gospel is now, what my understanding of following Christ is now. Like I said, it never occurred to me that salvation was something that occurred at a point in time, because I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe that God was or that Jesus died for our sins. I’ve always believed it. I’ve always believed it. But again, it was very simplistic, very shallow. My understanding was there were holes in it. Even in retrospect, I could say my understanding, there were holes in it, but it was basically true, and I believed it. And I don’t know if I understood at the time that I was born a sinner, but you didn’t need to convince me that I was a sinner. I was well aware of the sins that I had committed all the way up to that point. So my sins, they weighed heavily on me. And I didn’t understand the theology of original sin, but I understood that I was a sinner. You couldn’t tell me otherwise? I already knew that. But yeah, my sins weighed heavily on me. I think the Lord used Alfonsin. That African preacher. I don’t know what country he came from, but he was definitely from the continent of Africa. And I think the Lord used those two things to really begin to poke at me and to bring the gospel to my ears and to bring me to a point of genuine salvation.

Was that around the same time that you came to a full realization of your sin? OK, so this is going to sound weird right now if that makes sense. I understood that I was a sinner. I didn’t understand the theology of it, I didn’t understand original sin and how that applied to me and everything, but I knew that I was a sinner and I knew that I wasn’t good. And I knew in my heart of hearts that I wasn’t good, I wasn’t born good, I wasn’t a good person. I knew that. But that’s all I knew. So the extent of the understanding of my sin was I disobeyed my mom the other day or I didn’t do my homework that day, or I said that bad word that day. The sins that were immediate in my life at that time, that I had committed at that time, or any sin that I could remember in my past, that was my idea of my sin. And it is actually that’s not wrong. It’s just that the enormity of the weight of the immensity of my sin and the multitude of my sin. I didn’t come to grasp that until I think after I was saved. It was almost like I got saved and the Lord flipped the switch and I was able to see all kind of sin just everywhere. Just became hypersensitive to sin. Just to send in me the sin in my home. The sin everywhere. Just sin everywhere in that weird way. That wasn’t the time that I came to the full realization of my sin, but I did understand that I was a sinner.

When did you come to a full realization of those sins then? Okay, so I’m listening to this man preach and I did mention dark clouds brewing and everything but incrementally. These dark clouds were brewing, things were beginning to darken in the home. My father began to change. He began toward that brutal trend or track that I mentioned before. And things were happening in the church that were beginning to kind of break it up, but before things got really bad, incrementally things got bad, but before things got really bad. And of course I never understood why those things were happening at the time. But in spite of all that, I still looked at my father like the spiritual giant that he seemed to be in my eyes. He would always tell us about these prayers and I would always see him praying and just perfectly praying and reading his Bible and talking about the Bible and talking about spiritual victories he had where he defeated this demon or that over another. And I’m just like, wow, that’s what a spiritual warrior is. He really knows God. I really want to know, how can I be? So I pulled him aside one day and I asked him, daddy, you seem to really know God. How can I know God the way that you know God? So Gita Fantine has happened. This African preacher has happened, and I really want to know how basically I’m asking how to be saved is basically what I’m asking him now. And again, I just praise the mercy of the Lord, because the answer he gave me was not a good answer. But the Lord used it to point me to the Gospel. He said to me, he said, you know, God is not that hard to find. I was about 14 at the time, 9th grade, 8th grade, somewhere in there, maybe 7th, 8th grade, somewhere in there. And I said, Daddy, how can I find God? And he said, God is not that hard to find. Look at the incredible creation that he’s given us. And he would go on to list all of these amazing nature facts about whatever, just things about nature that he always found incredible, and he always found reason to praise God for them. And so it became this reciprocal thing where at school, if I learned something new, I couldn’t wait to run home and tell Daddy because I could just see it light up in his face. He’d be like, wow, that’s incredible. God did that. And we just kind of geek out over who God was as a result of his incredible creation. What I understand at the time, though, is that my Father was pointing me toward general revelation. And again, I praise the Lord for his mercy because the Lord used it anyway. My Father’s like, God’s not hard to find. Look at this incredible creation he’s given us. The moon, the stars. He starts listing all of these things. He said, Just fix your eyes on him. He’s not hard to find. It’s not like he’s not trying to be found. Fix your heart on him. Set your eyes upon him. Pray to Him, cry out to him. He will answer you. He’s not hard to find. And so I took him at his word. I hate to say this, but like a real dope, I was just like, okay, Daddy, I believe my father. Like this song, I believed my father. I believed him. And so I sought the Lord.

Anything I could get my hands on that I could read about Christ or Jesus or any sermon I heard on the radio, on TV, anything that I could get my hands on. I just inhaled Christ. And I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was inhaling a whole lot of junk at the same time because in my mind, whether you’re Catholic or Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon, I mean, we all love Christ. It’s all about Christ, so let’s all learn Christ. And so I inhaled a lot of bad theology that way. And paired with the Swiss cheese of my upbringing in terms of theology, there was a lot of holes, a lot of misconceptions, and a lot of outright lies. But again, I say the mercy of God is just incredible. And I praise Him for it because in seeking God and in trying to do what my father said about seeking God and reading everything that I could about Him and seeking Him, I don’t want to say I found God because I don’t think that’s accurate. I think he was searching for me. I think he had his finger on me all along, and he was just kind of gently leading me along to Him, and he was gently bringing me to Him. And I didn’t have much of the theological understanding to see where some of my understandings might be completely mutually exclusive because I didn’t understand all of that sort of thing. But anyway, in his mercy, God really drew my heart. And I really believe that was the time that he saved me for whatever sin I was committing at that time. And that I remembered up to that point. I remember just crying out to Him and asking Him to forgive me of that sin and to wash me clean and to make me his and to fill me with his spirit and to change my heart. And I would pray that at least seven times a day, every day, just seeking God and of course, just not having that knowledge. Hungry for Christ. Hungry for the word. Hungry for him. And God saved me at that point. I don’t know how or why, and I don’t know which one of them prayers that he heard, but God saved me at that point. He really did. I didn’t know a lot, but I think by God’s grace, I knew enough to be saved. My theology was probably a quarter of an inch deep, but I understood that I was a sinner and I understood that I needed saving because I understood how wretched I was, you guys, my siblings, how wretched I was. And God saved me. And my life completely changed at that moment. It really did.

So it seems like dad played a big role in despite his shortcomings. Dive a little bit deeper into that and explain what it is tricked. Was it his faint spirituality, maybe was just his position. But what was it about him that kind of say, hey, I’m looking at him and I want what he have? Because you say you’re not quite sure if you save now. Yeah. So what was it about him then that make you maybe it was just in the sense of a child. I think all of the above. I could see the struggle. He struggled a lot because he was different in public, but at home with us, and increasingly so, particularly as my older sisters went into high school, he became much darker, much stricter, much more brutal. But it wasn’t completely so. I don’t know how to describe it. I could see that there was a struggle there. I don’t know why even at the time, I’m sure I couldn’t reconcile the brutality with the faith that he professed. But he’s my father. I believe my father. I don’t know how else to describe that, you know, and I praise the Lord that God used him in spite of his shortcomings. And I have my doubts about his salvation now because see, now in hindsight, I could ask him a theological question and try to discern or understand what he understands and whether or not that means. At the time I didn’t know none of that. I didn’t know any of that. But I think it really just boils down to that’s my father, I believe him. And I’d like to stress that point because this sounds cliche and cheesy, almost cringe at this point, but it’s so incredibly true. Fathers have a monumental, just incredible amount of influence on their kids, even if they don’t even say a word. Because in the eyes of every child, daddy is superhero. Daddy is like this towering figure that they’re looking up to and they want to be like even if you’re a complete wreck or if you’re a mess, your kids are really looking up to you and they’re really looking to you and they’re really following you. And so I can only say that because I remember how large my father loomed in my mind when it came to spiritual things, when it came to anything really, I believed my father. So in spite of the shortcomings and by the mercy and the grace of God, God used that to draw me to him, even if it’s completely fallible.

Yeah, I have had, I would say, pointed conversation with dad concerning his salvation and have asked a pointed question in that respect to see if I would say that he saved or not. Again, my evaluation is not what makes a one save or unsaved, but from my conversation with him, I think there’s a possibility he might be saved. I think he may not have been disciples or his theology is very weak in terms of salvation. But when I clear away all the weeds and everything and come down to just scripture and how can someone be turned from darkness into light? He seemed to me, when I spoke to him pointedly about that, that he had a knowledge of salvation. So I think there might be a possibility he saved. I’m going to hesitant to say that he is, but just from my conversation with him, sitting before lunch, talking with him for an hour or so, I think that there’s a possibility he might be saved. I think theology wise, there’s a lot to be desired there. But if I’m safe to determine if someone is saved or not, if theology is poor because when I got saved, my theology was poor, that’s a different topic.

But what do you think were those barriers that were preventing you from being saved? No, hands down, lack of teaching, lack of understanding of the scriptures, it was a lack of scripture. I really think I can say that because we had Bibles, we heard the Bible read in services when the Bible was read in services. But as I say on Sunday mornings, the Bible was read in French. My understanding of French is very limited. I mean, if you were to drop me off in France, I’d be able to scrap along, I’d be able to scrap along and make it, but I’m not fluent in French at all. So if that’s the scripture that we’re hearing, we’re not going to understand much. Now in the evenings the service and everything was in Creole and we understood Creole very well, but the evening service was more like I mean, there was preaching but there wasn’t as much of a Bible focus. The evening service was more for worship and praise and singing and that kind of thing. Whereas in the morning it was more scripture heavy and all that sort of thing. And so that might be a barrier and the lack of discipleship and teaching and that sort of thing. Obviously many people believe that discipleship comes after salvation and that’s true to some extent. But if you’re trying to bring someone along and trying to teach them about what salvation is and what thus saith the Lord in the scriptures that is a form of discipleship that takes place before you’re saved in order to teach you what is sin, who is God, why do you need salvation? That’s the sort of teaching and discipleship as well. I mentioned before how dark clouds were brewing around the time that I got saved. I became very disillusioned after the point of salvation, I think because there are a lot of things that I didn’t understand that the scriptures are clear about when it comes to sanctification and walking with the Lord, war on sin, killing your sin so that it doesn’t kill you. I didn’t understand any of that when I got saved. Only afterwards did I come to realize the enormity of it. And so those are barriers, I think when you just get a piecemeal week sort of presentation of the gospel and praise God, he can use it, but it’s certainly not ideal because you can really bypass a lot of the misunderstanding and the lack of understanding, a lot of the hurt, a lot of the disillusionment if you had just been taught right from the beginning.

So those were barriers and I think that I was a barrier as well because for much of my upbringing I was just going along with the current of life and diddly bopping through life and not being curious, not really pushing myself to really try to understand the things I was hearing even though it was Swiss cheese. Well, even so, as the lady that started getting funding challenge me, these are things to contend with, things to engage with. And so there’s a lot of apathy and a lot of just not paying attention, lack of curiosity, just air headedness on my part, that was a barrier to salvation as well. I identify a lot with the lady in the Scriptures. I think it’s a Matthew 15 where she wowed the Lord with her faith. She’s asking the Lord to heal her daughter. And Jesus says it’s not right to take food from the children and give it to the dogs. And she’s like, yeah, but even the dogs get to eat the scraps that fall from the Master’s table. I identify with her a lot because I feel like whatever scrap that came from the table of sound theology, of a systematic, well grounded, full rich way of understanding the whole council of God and of Scripture, I kind of got scraps that fell from the table because there are churches in the area that I think had their theological head screwed on properly. And I’m sure they had their schools and I’m sure they had their programs, but they didn’t come seeking for lost sheep. Well, let me not say that I never saw them coming to look for lost sheep. The evangelism wasn’t there. I don’t remember any of them coming to my neighborhood. The only ones that came to my neighborhood were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they don’t have the truth. And we were actually disciples for a little time by Jehovah’s Witnesses, so we had a whole lot of weird theology to untangle and all that sort of thing. But I’m grateful for the scraps that fell from the table. Whatever little bit that we could get, the Lord absolutely used. It the Scriptures that say that his world will not return for it. It’s real in my life. I’ve seen it in my life.

And how would those barriers eventually remove? Pinpoint that time when those barriers were removed. I think those barriers were removed when people who had a genuine understanding of salvation around me obeyed the Lord and did whatever it was the Lord was calling them to do. Because whatever it was the Lord was calling them to do, God used that to awaken my spiritual stupor, my spiritual blindness. The lady and her husband that started GitHub hunting, and that was how the bears began to be removed. The African preacher that obeyed the call of God to preach, and the Lord brought him to our church to preach so that I could hear the Bible says. The Bible says so that God could point me to the Bible. Around that time when I asked my father, how can I know God? And he pointed me to general revelation, the Lord used that to point me to special revelation. I got an English Bible and started reading the Bible in English because I wanted to know what the Bible said up to that point. Bible wasn’t Creole. Bible wasn’t French. I got a Bible in English. Started reading the Bible in English. Now, the church where we were in, we rented a building from another church. And so the Bibles in the pew were questionable at best, questionable translation, but even that I devoured them. When I was in my class, there was a lady oh, here’s another example of just people obeying God wherever they are. My English teacher in the 9th grade, I remember what she looks like, but I can’t remember life of me remember her name. But at any rate, I could tell in hindsight that she was a Christian, because I would find little ways that she would try to slip in Christ, little ways that she would try to slip in the Bible here and there. So she would require, I should say that we do these book reports. I don’t know if you remember doing book reports in school and stuff, I hated all of them. She would tell us you can choose any book from the shelf at the back of the classroom. And one of the books was a Bible. I still have that Bible to that day. I took that Bible because I just couldn’t get enough. And it’s an awful translation of the Bible, awful. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, but I have that Bible to that day because it wasn’t a good translation of the Bible. And I wasn’t in church when I was told to do a book report and to read and study that thing. But she said do a book report and the Bible was there, and I thought, oh, the Bible. So I grabbed the Bible and I can’t remember on which book I did a book report, but as a result of taking that Bible and reading that particular book, I just couldn’t get enough. I could not stop reading the Bible. I wanted to know more, I wanted to know more. All because this woman, teaching in a public school, did whatever she could to answer a little bit of Christ in there. While the government, of course, was working hard to pull Christ out, she was finding ways to plug Christ back in. So that’s how those barriers were removed. When the people who do their ministry over the radio or over the TV, all that stuff that I was inhaling, some of it terrible, some of it solid, that’s how those bears were removed. Each person, each saved person obeying Christ where they are doing what they can to save the souls around them, right at this moment, right at this time, for me in my life, even though it meant a lot of years of removing untruths from truths and lies, from solid theology, that’s how my barriers were removed.

All right, great. You’re listening to the Removal of Barriers podcast and we’re finding out how Jay’s barriers were removed. We’ll be right back.

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers, if you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on. Consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate. Removing Barriers, a Clear View of the Cross.

Thank you so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher. Removing Barriers, a Clear View of the Cross.

two Corinthians 5:17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So Jay, after salvation, what changes were evident in your life? As I say, I can’t point to a particular point in time when the Lord saved me, but I am fairly certain that he saved me when I was around 1415 in the 9th grade. And as I said before, it sounds weird, but the full realization of my sin didn’t really hit me until after I got saved. And I think that was the Holy Spirit just showing all the areas that needed cleaning up in my life. But immediately after salvation, I was on cloud nine. Just I couldn’t get enough of the Word. I’m reading the Bible at every single moment that I can. I’m in class reading the Bible, supposed to be listening to lessons and reading the Bible and praying all the time, journaling, seeking the Lord repenting of sin whenever I think of it, whenever it happens. Just like a bonfire for Christ. It was so incredible, so incredible. Just when you see Christ and how magnificent and glorious he is, even though your understanding is shallow, it’s deepening the more you learn. And I loved his word. I couldn’t get enough of the preaching, couldn’t get enough of learning about Him. I couldn’t decipher right from wrong immediately in terms of theology, but I just couldn’t get enough. You’re talking about Christ? Oh yeah, let’s do it. You know what I mean? Let’s talk about around that time I had gotten my learner’s permit and I heard over the radio that a church that literally is within walking distance of my house, less than 3 miles from my house, probably more like a mile and a half from my house. I heard on the radio that they were having a sole winning class. I’m going. Never told anyone. I had no idea of how to win someone to Christ, but I knew that if you’re a Christian, you need to be telling people how to be saved. So I jumped in our 1981 Ford F 150. It was a weird beige color. And I said, Mama, I’m going to the soul winning class. She’s like, okay. For her, I told her I was going to a church thing and for her it’s church. Good go, no problem. We’re still in that mode of anything. Christ is cool. We’re not really fully discerning yet, but anyway, I go to the Soul winning class and they give us basic Romans road type teaching and I was like, okay, let’s go. I mean, I’m ready to attack hell with a water pistol. Just ready to go. And we go out soul winning that night. And I remember the first guy I witnessed to was this man in an apartment complex, and he looked like he just got off work, poor soul. And I’m just running off the mouth about how Lord saved me and just Romans Road and just all of this sort of thing just on fire. I can see that he’s tired, but I can’t control my excitement. I can’t contain it. I share the gospel with him. And much to my amazement, he says he wants to pray for salvation. I’m like, yeah, let’s pray. I’m laughing and I’m jubilant right now because I just remember what it’s like to be just so swallowed up by the majesty and the mercy and the goodness of Christ. It’s just so contagious.

Anyway, long story short, he prayed for salvation, and I’ve never heard from him since. Unfortunately, I was not a member of that church. They announced over the radio that they were having the Soul Winning class, and they just invited people to come. And I was like, oh, yeah, you know what I mean? Anyway, so after salvation, hunger for God, hunger for the Word, witnessing to everyone, even though I don’t know squat. Just witnessing to everyone and all of that. But like I said, around that time as well, dark clouds began to brew. The church was definitely on some rocky ground, just some interpersonal conflict. I never knew what really happened. And my father turned toward a dark route in terms of his demeanor and how easily angered and easily upset he became. And I don’t know, it was never really directed toward me, although we got the short end of the stick, but my siblings, my older sisters got the brunt of it, but we also got some blowback and all of that sort of thing. But the church split and it limped along until the new pastor was installed. And he wasn’t new to us. We knew who he was because he was a traveling evangelist in the area. But yeah, he was a real fire brand. He was really animated. He worked himself into a tizzy. He worked himself into a sweaty mess, preaching on Sunday. And again, I’m just looking at him like, okay, wow, he’s fired up for God. I’m fired up for God too. And obviously in the Zeal, can’t really see clearly. Just want to know about Christ. I just want to serve Christ. And if you’re excited about Christ, I really want to he’s on fire with the Holy Ghost. Yeah, sure. Oh, goodness. The poor theology there was obviously evident, the holes in theology there, and the church rebounded for a bit under his leadership. And we were much older now, so we were in a singing group by an older lady in the church, and she was sort of quasi discipling us in that sort of way. But this pastor had his issues. I think he was rubbing a lot of the leadership deacons and a lot of the others in the wrong way. And there were a lot of rumblings underneath. Of course, when you’re on cod nine, you don’t realize any of these things. You’re just on fire for God. And I never understood what happened, but people began to leave, including the lady that started getting funding. The church breaks up. So this is the second time the church has broken up. Actually, it had broken up once before, so the church breaks up. So that began a very long period of a vacillating in my faith, because I’m looking at all of this stuff happening. I’m like, Wait, what’s happening here? I’m safe now. Christ is the Lord of my life, and I can’t get enough of Him. And things are supposed to be hunky dory now, right? Yeah. Again, that’s the wrong theology, wrong understanding of sanctification, of warfare, of that kind of thing. Anyway, so at this point, I’m in high school, and this vacillating, this wrestling, it started in high school. It went all the way through college, my first year in college, all throughout my time in the military, because I didn’t understand the concept of sanctification. I was under the understanding that once you got saved, you just a rocket toward Christ until the day he calls you home or until the day you die. And so to be hit by life, pretty much, and to realize that, wait a minute, sin is still here, brokenness is still here. The sin within me is still there. And it seems like it’s raging now, like there’s this fight. Whereas before I was aware of the sin and I hated it, and I wanted to repent of it and be saved. Now it’s almost as if I woke a dragon.

It was fighting me all the time, and I was fighting it, and I was not prepared for that. I thought perhaps there was something wrong with my salvation at that point. And so there was just a lot of just really unnecessary struggle. Had I understood sanctification and the work of the Lord in our lives to really peel away sin and to really what is it called when you have a blacksmith and they beat the metal? God was doing a lot of that in my life. I didn’t understand it at the time if perhaps I didn’t understand the promises of God or did he abandon me or did I do something wrong, what was going on? So after salvation, after that euphoria of understanding Christ for those first few months to a year, maybe after that, you come back down and real life hits. And my life was very much a lot of struggle in fighting back and forth. And it wasn’t until my second term in the military, in the Marines, where there was a chaplain who invited me to church, and I met a lady there at the church who, for the first time in my walk with Christ, this is like maybe six, seven years after salvation, tried to sit down and disciple me and try to teach me. At that same time, my brother in law was challenging me because he was learning new things, and he was beginning to see the Haitian churches in the area and how they didn’t line up with Scripture. And so he was at a Calvinistic church. But that church took a systematic approach in reading and studying the scriptures. They took that very seriously, and they had things in place to really teach people, like just go through and systematically teach them theology and doctrine. Of course, I don’t bolt to Calvinism, but at the time when he began to challenge me, that was one of the first churches that did that kind of held your feet to the fire and say, hey, thus saith the Lord. You’re not living so naturally when they behave that way, or when you encounter that, you just kind of hold onto it. Of course, you’re not able to understand or see the theology. But anyway, God is merciful and God is good, and he’s leading me along. He’s leading me along. It’s one of my favorite hymns. He’s leading me along. And so at any rate, and that intervention first, it was the chaplain who invited me to church, the lady that I met in addition to my brother in law challenging me. At that point. I had moved to a different military base here and being at the church where I am now. And just through the process of sitting down under the preaching. Learning. And after I got out of the military. Going to a Christian college so that I could further understand theology. Further understand Scripture. Further understand doctrine. That’s where I began to.

I believe. Just grow and understand and walk deeper or have a deeper walk in my faith. Do you think the way your barriers were removed would be effective in reaching someone maybe with a similar upbringing, a similar background, like you? I would say yes, but I would also say it really doesn’t have to be that way. As I said before, if the Christians who know the truth, who are grounded in their faith, grounded in the scriptures, grounded in doctrine, if they would just look around and look for someone who’s either not saved or treading water or trying to keep their head above water spiritually, I mean, and just take them under your wing. What I went through to have those barriers removed, to understand the faith and to understand who I am in Christ, to understand Christ himself much deeper than just, oh, Jesus came to save us, which is true, but all of the very important theology underneath that, they won’t have to go through that. You could save someone not just from sin, but from the headache of trying to detangle theology, good theology from bad theology, that’s something to consider, too. So just being faithful, reaching out to the people around you and obeying the Lord where the Lord has you right now. There are no shortage of people who are either saved and are baby Christians with no discipleship or not saved at all and need both salvation and discipleship. And we should really be about the work of doing that. Even as I say that I’m convicted because I feel like I should be doing more, I know that I should be doing more. So I do believe.

Yeah. The Great Commission also involves the cybership as well. So what are you doing personally in the area of evangelism to help others remove the barriers that they’re facing? Not enough, I feel. But what I am doing is I do go out with our church to knock on doors every week, although recently I haven’t been able to do that because we have more than one child. Now we have four. And it’s a little difficult to take four children to the door. But when my soul winning partners in town, I definitely take the children with me. I don’t let the children be an excuse to not go and evangelize. It’s important that they go and they see Mommy and Daddy telling people about Christ. So we go from door to door, we knock on their doors, we tell them about Christ. I love what Missionary David in Albania says. He says, Pray, meet people, tell them about Jesus. It’s really simple. So once a week, and there was a time twice a week we would go out, knock on doors, share the gospel with people, door to door, confronting them with the gospel. We have this podcast, even if it’s a little something that we could do, put out there over the Internet waves. Perhaps someone will hear it or hear a testimony or hear one of the podcasts or one of the episodes and hear the gospel. One thing I really appreciate that you do, MCG, for this podcast is that every single episode is aimed at pointing people to the cross. There’s a gospel message at the end of each one, and that’s almost yeah. But the desire of our hearts is that people will hear the gospel. The gospel that saved me is the same gospel that will save them. I do witness on a personal level, just not in an organized fashion with the church, but also on the personal level. I’ve spoken to several of our neighbors about the Lord, and again, not enough. I want to do more. Definitely not enough. There’s so many around us that need the Lord. Yeah. And don’t forget our unsafe children that you put a lot of time and effort into as well. Yeah. I’m ashamed to say this, but I didn’t realize or fully understand what a mission field the children are. And I think perhaps that comes. From when I was a kid. It’s just the atmosphere of the home was just Christianish. But realizing especially now that in preparing for this podcast and having to think back, just remember what my childhood was like. I don’t want them growing up the way that I did where the atmosphere at home was not distinctively Christian. I don’t want them to grow up with any question about whether or not we are a Christian family and this is what we believe and this is what thus say at the Lord. I don’t want them to grow up with any gaps in their understanding and I’m sure that we can’t evade that completely. But I think that we can try our best to give them the full counsel of the word of God and not just a Swiss cheese piece meal type of gospel presentation. You’re definitely doing a good job. Our oldest already made a profession of faith and I do believe he saved and think that’s fruit of your labor, even though he did come to me on that final step. I think that of course we are homeschooling and you do a lot of that there.

All right, let’s go into a little bit of fun section to find out some of your favorites. Tell me what is your favorite scripture? Verse one, Timothy 1:15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. That’s a good one. Yeah.

What’s your favorite Bible history? Can I cheat and tell you too? Sure. Okay. I mentioned it before, but in Matthew 15 read about the woman at the table. Then Jesus went, then departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon and behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, have mercy on me, oh Lord, the son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord help me. But he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children’s bread and cast it to dog. And she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, o woman greatest, thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. I’m just so grateful to even get scraps from the Master’s table. I praise him for it. Amen.

And the second one that you so graciously allowed me to cheat give you a second one is in Matthew eight. This was where the Lord hails a leper when he was come down from the mountain. Great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy was cleansed. The Lord touched a leper. Leprosy is so ugly. It’s just this terrible disease that eats you up from the inside out. And the compassion of the Lord just blows me away because I’m that leper. That leper is me. And the Lord touched me, and he was willing to and he cleansed me, and he saved me too. Praise God.

What would you say is the most convicting scripture passage to you? You know, my father pointed me to general revelation. One of the things I love in God’s creation is the sky. And when you look into the sky, there are clouds. There are thin wispy clouds that hold no water. And they don’t mean anything in terms of weather, but then you have those big looming clouds where you see them, and you know water is coming, rain is coming, thunderstorm is coming. The reason why I mentioned that is because I don’t want to be a cloud without water. There is a verse in Ezekiel that refers to prophets and people who are entrusted with the word of God, who they either treat it very what’s the word? They’re very light with it, or they don’t take it seriously, or they’re preaching a message that can’t save their clouds without water. But anyway, that’s very convicting to me because we tell people about the Lord all the time. And I don’t want to ever be accused of being someone that has a gospel that can’t save. I don’t ever want to be one telling people that, oh, God has a wonderful plan for your life, to be healthy all the time and rich and all of your troubles to go away. I don’t want to be that false preacher, that false teacher. Ezekiel, chapter 3:17 to 21. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life. That same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turned not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity. But thou hast delivered thy soul again. When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his sin, and the righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered, but his blood will. I require it thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not. And he doth not sin. He shall surely live because he is warned. And thou hast delivered thy soul. Now we have a better understanding of who’s saved and who isn’t. But the general gist of that verse says god has given us the precious Gospel, and he has commended us to go out into the world and share it with every single creature. If we don’t, we will have to answer to the Lord for that. I’m not saying that we’ll lose our salvation or anything like that, but I think it’s a weighty thing to stand before the Lord. And when he asks you, what have you done with the Gospel? Have you sought out my lost sheep? Have you done what I’ve told you to do? I want to be able to say, hey, Lord, something. I don’t want to hold something so glorious and keep it to myself. I want to share the Gospel.

All right. Great. So what is the most confident Scripture passage to you? The most comforting Scripture for me is Isaiah 42 three. Well, it starts in verse three. It says, behold my servant whom I uphold my neglect and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. And this is verse three. That really is such a comfort to me. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth. And the isles shall wait for his law. Our Savior is at once the conquering king. Everything will be subdued. And yet a bruised reed he will not break. The mercy that he shows the poor, incapable, feeble sinner. A smoking flax shall he not quench. The mercy that he shows the weakest of us is such a comfort to me because I’m that Bruce Reed. I’m that smoking flax. There are times even now where I just wonder. It’s hard sometimes when you consider everything that’s happening or perhaps things you might be going through where you wonder. You just wonder. And I always go back to that first and remember that as weak as I am, as a bruise reed as I am, a smoking flax that I am, he won’t break me and he won’t quench me. I won’t be crushed under the weight of his glory and of his righteousness. And it’s all because of his mercy, where it’s well within his right to obliterate me because I’m so sinful, and yet he has mercy on us. That’s a great comfort to me. Oh, great amen.

What would you say is your favorite hymn of the fate? I never understood this question. I remember our good friend DW asking that question a long time ago, long before we were married. And I was like, what are you talking about? Favorite Him? How do you even pick one? But I think I can honestly say that I can point to one. And it’s called God Leads US Along. And shady pastors. So rich and so sweet god leads his dear children along where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet god leads his dear children along some through the water. Some through the flood. Some through the fire. But all through the blood. Some through great sorrow but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long I really believe that the Lord was man. He led me along. He brought me along, he searched for me, he found me and he saved me, and he’s brought me along all of this time, and I just praise his name for it. I really do.

And who is your favorite giant of the faith from the Bible? I identify so much with Peter, man, I really do. Rough around the edges, probably not the most bright, not the brightest, not intellectual. His foot is in his mouth. More so than not, he fails often. He’s just a hot mess. I identify with Peter, he was a hot mess. But because of the mercy of the Lord and because of the Lord’s faithfulness. The faithfulness of God. Of Christ in his life. He was able to say. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who according to his abundant mercy. Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. That faith not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. That’s one. 1 Peter 1:3-5. Man. If there’s hope for Peter, there’s hope for us, and I praise God for that.

Well, let’s wrap it up and tell us how can those barriers be removed in the life of others? We got to go get them, ma’am. We got to go get God’s lost sheep. We have to seek and save that which was lost, because that’s what the Lord came to do. And he’s tasked us with the same thing. Not that we can save them, but we can point them to the Savior. We can point them to the cross. We can help remove barriers, and we’ve got to give them the word of God. We got to be clear about it. We have to explain to them the problem of sin. Romans 3:10 says that our sinful nature I know we say it so often, and it becomes cliche. I don’t want to say it becomes cliche. I hope I’m making sense. We think of the Romans road and we think, oh, yeah, everybody knows that. Everybody knows the Romans road. But when we understand what the scriptures say about our sin God will begin to use that to change our hearts and to make us into what he wants us to be. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There’s none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They’re together become unprofitable. There’s none that doeth good, no, not one. And I think many people on some level understand this. They understand that they’re not good people, they make mistakes, as it were. But I think it’s important for people to understand that your so called mistakes are an egregious affront to a holy God. And I don’t think that we explained that enough. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that’s something that they really need to understand. But the good news, the blessed news is that even though we’ve sinned against God, and even though the scriptures say there’s a penalty for sin and the wages of sin is death, we deserve death for our sin. Even though that’s true. I am living proof that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, because I was the chief of them. And he made his way to the earth, to Orlando, Florida to save my wretched little soul. He put people in my way to preach the Gospel and to tell me that my sins were many and that I needed salvation from them. I understood that I couldn’t earn salvation. But I think that there might be someone listening to this podcast thinking that somehow your good outweighs your bad. Or because that you acknowledge that you’re a sinner, somehow that’s enough to be saved. It’s not enough to be saved just because you acknowledge your sin or you acknowledge that you’re not perfect. You must turn from your sin and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, suffered and bled, died on the cross in order to pay for that sin. And he promises that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. He will save them. He will save you from your sin, he will cleanse you, give you a new heart and transform you the way he did me. That’s my prayer for you today, that you will turn from your sin, turn to whatever you’re trusting in, and turn to Christ and believe on Him today for the salvation of your soul.

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast, or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers. Podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.